Charter schools have been one of the most divisive education issues of the last decade in Indiana education circles. But on today’s monthly conversation with Purdue president Mitch Daniels, he calls criticism of them “rubbish” as he explains why the school needs one to recruit more black students.

As Purdue has recruited more international and out-of-state students to balance out its tuition freezes, imbalances in the student body have emerged. Some of them are attendance-based – there are a lot of Asian students and few African-Americans.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says the national inflation rate for 2014 was about 1.6-percent. That means employees who receive raises of 1.6-percent are just keeping pace with an increased cost of living.

So when Purdue proposed a 3-to-3.5-percent raise for many employees, it came as a welcome respite from years of raises in the 0-to-2-percent range. On this month’s conversation with Purdue President Mitch Daniels, we ask him how he arrived at that number and how it’ll be doled out.

The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee says he’s allocating more money for higher education in this year’s spending plan so, in his words, colleges won’t have to raise tuition. That was music to the ears of Purdue President Mitch Daniels, who’s pushed a tuition freeze for the three years he’s been in office. On this month’s conversation with him, we ask what influence he had on getting the state to push for the same changes Purdue has made.